New York Marine Tried in Assault of Iraqi Prisoner
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – A Marine went on trial yesterday on charges he delivered a karate kick to the chest of an Iraqi prisoner who authorities say later suffocated from a crushed windpipe.
The assault case against Reserve Sergeant Gary Pittman, of New York, is the first court-martial known to be connected to the death of a prisoner in Iraq.
The POW, Nagem Hatab, had been rumored to be an official of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, and allegedly took part of the ambush of a U.S. Army convoy that left 11 soldiers dead and led to the capture of Private First Class Jessica Lynch and five others.
Within 48 hours of the Iraqi’s arrest in June 2003, a guard found a lifeless Hatab lying naked and covered in his own waste in a yard at Camp Whitehorse, a makeshift lockup outside Nasiriyah that has since been closed.
According to a fellow Marine who was granted immunity, Sergeant Pittman karate-kicked the handcuffed, hooded Hatab in the chest so hard that he flew three feet before hitting the floor.
An autopsy concluded that Hatab had seven broken ribs and slowly suffocated from a crushed windpipe. Defense lawyers say Hatab died of natural causes, perhaps from an asthma attack.
Yesterday, the judge in the case, Colonel Robert Chester, agreed to let a doctor testify for the defense that the markings on Hatab’s body were not consistent with a kick to the chest.
Sergeant Pittman, who in civilian life was a guard at a federal prison, is one of three men charged in Hatab’s death.
Eight Marines originally were charged with crimes ranging from dereliction of duty to negligent homicide. However, a judge ruled that it could not be determined who caused Hatab’s death. Sergeant Pittman could get more than three years in a military prison if found guilty of assault and dereliction of duty.
Jury selection began yesterday. A panel of at least five fellow Marines will hear the case. The judge advised the men that the case should not be confused with the allegations of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Hatab, 52, is among 37 Iraqi and Afghan prisoners whose deaths are being investigated.
